"Is it necessary to build this fort? Is there anything else that threatens us? "In the middle of summer in the northern hemisphere of 1682, while the Ottomans were making trouble in Hungary, a large number of Korean coolies were sweating and working on a construction site near the port of Vladivostok in the Far East.

This is the northwestern part of the East Coast Island, along the narrow waterway between the island of Russia and the Golden Horn Peninsula, and engineers hired from the East Coast are pointing at the drawings. In front of them, a group of young engineers and technicians who graduated from Yantai University or Heishui Transportation College (their courses naturally cannot be compared with those in their own country, and the content of their learning is relatively superficial) is running around, guiding the people from North Korea to work. The construction of the fort is a system project with rich technical content, which requires a large number of mathematical and mechanical talents to participate in the design, and then send engineers with rich construction experience to guide the construction, and finally have excellent gunners sent by the military to install and adjust the cannon to make it play its best performance.

It's just that, as one of the officers just asked, is it necessary to build a fort on this island? Yes, the number of ships on the east coast is not enough, and they have to be scattered all over the place, and there may not be a few warships in the harbor on weekdays, and it may not be possible to block the enemy ships coming from the open sea. But the question is, in the Far East, who can threaten the people of the East Coast? The only threat is the ships from the European countries, but they are all businessmen, can they afford to fight the people of the East Coast? If it is said that Zheng's fleet is coming to attack, it is better to spare them, it is impossible.

Fortunately, the scale of these batteries is not very large, just average, and at the same time, it was built together with the land defense fortress, and there are training grounds around it, so it is not bad to set up the training ground for the troops in the future. As for repairing forts, let's build forts, to be honest, this is not excessive, the navy of the British Empire in later generations was so strong, why did it still build a large number of forts in its own homeland and overseas colonies? It's just a matter of preparedness! A country's defense system must have more than one layer, it is too weak, the amount of honor is too small, anyway, some artillery and the like, local production is not expensive at all, at best, it is just a little troublesome to transport it over long distances, but it is also an affordable price. Not to mention that the labor force for the construction of the fort is all Korean masters who "bring their own dry food", then there is no problem, repair it! It doesn't matter!

"Where do you get so many words? If you repair the fort, you will have one more insurance, and you don't have to pay for it anyway, the most expensive piece (artificial construction costs) has already been borne by the North Koreans, what do you want? There is such a big advantage to take advantage of, so let's steal the fun. Lu Xiaofeng scolded his subordinates and said.

In fact, to a certain extent, Lu Xiaofeng did not disapprove of what his subordinates said just now, in fact, he wanted to use these North Koreans to build the main buildings of the city. However, since Chen Ke, the captain of the Blackwater Pioneer Team, has made a decision, he has nothing to say, and the implementation is.

"Summer is the best day of the year in Vladivostok!" Looking at the magnificent scenery of the sea and sky in front of him, Lu Xiaofeng's heart couldn't help but shake, and at the same time, he was thinking about how such a magnificent and beautiful mountain and river could be given to the Tartars? Whether it is the local fishskin tartars or the Jianzhou tartars that have entered the city of Beijing, they have to stand aside, which is the land of the Republic of China on the east coast of China. Although it is a bit cold and remote, the fishery resources are many times more abundant than in the warmer areas, and the economic value of such things as high-quality furs and giant timber is quite good, not to mention the gold mines.

Of course, the biggest advantage here is that there are few competitors, and you can enclose a lot of land without investing too many resources. Now that they have solved the threat from the Russian side on the Western Front, they can concentrate on solving the troubles from the Qing State, which is already the only competitor they control in the inner and outer northeast.

The only obstacle now is probably that the Qing side has started peace talks with the east coast and wants to achieve peace in the outer northeast. Previously, they had reached a consensus with the southern development team in the Ningbo area, and the two sides would take the area under their actual control as the demarcation line, temporarily truce and negotiate peace, and open up trade. But in the peace talks with Denglai, it was not very smooth, and the drag and tear continued, and Liu Jianguo, the captain of the pioneer team, never nodded, but the war between the two sides no longer existed, and even small-scale battles were very few, and it seemed to be developing on a good side. From this point, it can also be seen that the peaceful development of Ningshao and Denglai has gradually become the mainstream, and the people have the instinctive need to pursue a more stable life.

However, these are only two feudal towns in the south. In terms of the Heishui Pioneer Team, which is located in the northernmost part, Chen Ke is not so in favor of peace talks, and feels that it is necessary to take advantage of the current opportunity to step up action, fight for more territory from the Qing people, gather more natives, and lay a good foundation for staking when the situation changes in the future. If the Qing people really can't stand it one day and give up the whole of Manchuria, then the people on the east coast will definitely happily pick it up and occupy all the customs outside the Qing people. At that time, the Manchurians who were only concerned about the country, if they wanted not to destroy the country and destroy their clans, it was estimated that they would have to merge with the Han landlords and gentry. It's just that in that case, is there still a Manchurian ethnic group? Speaking of which, this road is actually just a path of slow death, and there is no essential difference between it and the previous more intense extermination of the country and the nation.

In fact, the Manchu court is also quite depressed now. At the beginning, when they reached an agreement with the Southern Pioneer Team, they were actually quite pleasantly surprised, and they felt that they could breathe a big sigh of relief. But then they found out that Ma Wenqiang's nod can only be regarded as a matter of the Ningbo family, Denglai and the Northeast are in a mess, and they have to talk about it one by one, which is really angry old nose - in fact, this is not only the factor of the people on the east coast making it difficult for the Qing country, but also the facts, because the Far Eastern feudatories on the east coast have long been split, although the home team of Denglai is faintly the largest, but it is only the nominal highest military commander of the three feudatories, and it is difficult to interfere in the diplomacy, finance, and trade of other feudatories, although the influence is not low.

The Qing court, which learned of this situation, had no choice, and they could only send separate missions to Denglai and Heishui to negotiate peace. Among them, Denglai said that although the attitude is not very positive, it is still talking in the end. But Heishui is very fucked, the Manchu mission has been in the ice and snow for I don't know how long, people and livestock have frozen to death on the road, or where is the office of Chen Ke, the highest official of the people from the east coast in the northeast. Some of the East Coast officials who accompanied them along the way either really didn't know or pretended not to know, and in any case, it was only after spring that they found Chen Ke in the area of Yaksana, where he had been working all winter last year (the year before was in Boli and the year before last in Temple Street, so his whereabouts could be described as erratic...... ）。

It's a pity that Chen Ke disappointed the Qing mission, he was not very active in the peace talks, and could even be described as having a bad attitude, and not long after the talks, he went to several counties in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River under the pretext of opening the spring inspection. It was not until last month that the two sides resumed negotiations at Harbinburg, but the progress was too slow.

Lu Xiaofeng, who understood the meaning of his boss from these actions, immediately stepped up his actions in the area of Vladivostok, constantly sending out the few troops at hand, searching for and winning over the native tribes, and at the same time resolutely attacking the Jurchen tribes who were determined to defect to the Qing court. Even earlier this month, with the assistance of some Jurchen servants, they defeated a Qing army of more than 1,000 infantry on the banks of the Ussuri River. This move greatly weakened the prestige of the Qing State in this region, so that a large number of tribes that had remained neutral began to fall to the east coast, and even the tribes that were originally inclined to them began to secretly communicate with Vladivostok, and became swaying from side to side - the native tribes who have lived in the harsh places outside the Guanwai for generations are more realistic than anyone else, and they also value the immediate interests more seriously, and the Qing Kingdom shows its decline, so don't blame them for being disloyal, this is a matter of course.

"Next month, two ships will sail from Kushiro and Atsugishi on Ezo Jijima, and a group of graduates from the Blackwater Transportation College will arrive with the ship. Mr. Wei retired due to illness, and finally stopped holding all the talents in his hands, how big is the land over there, and the territory of less than two counties is equipped with so many knowledge cadres, which is a waste. Lu Xiaofeng seemed to suddenly remember something, and instructed his subordinates: "Now that Deputy Commander Wei is no official and light, and Captain Chen Kechen has taken over the work in an all-round way, the East Coast North Korean Company and the East Coast Japanese Company can no longer mess around, and they must contribute to the local area." ”

Having said this, Lu Xiaofeng finally showed a little resentment - if he had spoken before in line with the principle of hiding for His Holiness, then this sentence fully exposed his innermost thoughts. It has been several years since he came to the Far East, especially in the area under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Pioneer Team, Lu Xiaofeng is not ignorant of the strange situation of Ezo Land Island and the two trading companies under the control of Wei Boqiu, and he has also heard a lot of rumors, and he has believed a little bit in his heart for many years, but he has never said it.

It wasn't until Wei Boqiu resigned from almost all his positions because of his poor health (he was bedridden for a time and almost didn't survive), and asked to retire on Ezo Island, and after Denglai and Heishui took over the East Coast Korean Company and the East Coast Japan Company respectively, many things gradually became clear, and with the transfer of Li Cardo, Chen Shuo and other Wei die-hards ("Gao Sheng" returned to the local ministry for appointment), the Wei forces began to gradually disintegrate, and the territory that could not be splashed by water was slowly wiped out by the two northern feudal domains.

Now a group of students who graduated from the Blackwater Transportation College can be assigned to work in Vladivostok and several other nearby towns, which is basically impossible in Wei Boqiu's years, Gaina has long been assigned to Ezo Island and the two companies he controls, and even some of the more trusted people have been secretly sent to North America to work and settle in the North American Democratic Liberal Federation that he has made up—that country still has only tens of thousands of people, and it is still on the basis of naturalizing some Indians. The Indians of North America were fierce and proud, and the contradictions between them and the colonial regime were extremely acute, and fierce battles broke out between the two ends of the three days, which not only caused the new country to hastily stop the pace of expansion, but also lost a lot of young people, and life was quite difficult.

And now that Wei Boqiu has stepped down again, his henchmen have gradually been transferred, the route from Ezo Island to North American Hope Island has been quietly abolished, and the related people have disappeared in the last large-scale voyage. After losing a long-term blood transfusion point, the future of the North American Democratic Liberal Federation depends entirely on their own efforts. You must know that the three feudatories in the Far East are basically second-generation officials in power, and the old comrades in the local government are also withering day by day, and there are no people who are willing to cover and provide support for Wei Boqiu, and it is impossible for them to get any assistance from the outside, so they can only rely on themselves!

"Understood, Commissioner Lu." The subordinate immediately replied with a smile: "Vladivostok was established as the future ruling center, so the urban area is very large, and the main buildings are too far apart, and there is even a long-haired and grassy land in between. Ningbo is narrow and densely populated, and if a large number of people are sent over, the Heishui Transportation Institute will send another group of cadres over, and if the North Koreans and Denglai provide some money, grain, and livestock, then they will all be alive, it is perfect! ”

"I'm afraid it's more than that, right? I heard that the East Coast Japanese Company has been directly taken over by the working group sent by Captain Chen, and now it is vigorously recruiting Japanese ronin samurai or something, and come to us to act as the main force of local security. After all, those barbarians are too difficult to manage, and they can only use those Japanese ronins to deal with them. Those little dwarfs, alas, I know a few, ruthless to the enemy, cruel to their own fucking cruelty, I am convinced, to use them to cure the Tunguska savages, I think it is very suitable, the right medicine. ”

Hearing them chatting like this, the corners of Lu Xiaofeng's mouth couldn't help but rise an arc. As soon as Wei Boqiu retreated, Denglai didn't dare to say it, but it was indeed a major benefit to Heishui, whether it was economically, civilly, militarily or otherwise, it really gave up a lot of benefits. In this way, Lu Xiaofeng felt more confident, and it was indeed time to step up some actions in Manchuria.